GOP bid to alter U.S.-Russia nuke pact fails

Senate rejects effort that would have reopened treaty talks

WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats deflected an initiative by Republicans on Saturday that would have forced U.S. and Russian negotiators to reopen an arms treaty reducing stockpiles of nuclear warheads.

But the 59-37 vote against an amendment by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., indicated the difficulty President Barack Obama is having in trying to win Senate ratification of the treaty before a new, more Republican Congress assumes power in January.

Treaties require a two-thirds majority of those voting in the Senate, or 67 votes if all 100 senators vote.

Led by McCain, Obama's GOP opponent in the 2008 presidential election, Republicans tried to strike words from the treaty's preamble that they say would allow Russia to withdraw from the pact if the U.S. develops a missile-defense system in Europe.

The treaty is a foreign-policy priority for Obama, who signed it in April with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

It would limit each country's strategic nuclear warheads to 1,550, down from the current ceiling of 2,200, and establish a system for monitoring and verification.

U.S. weapons inspections ended a year ago with the expiration of the 1991 arms-control treaty.

He also tried to allay GOP doubts with a letter Saturday to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., pledging to carry through with planned U.S. missile-defense facilities in Romania and Poland that would be capable of intercepting a missile from Iran aimed at the U.S.

As long as he is president, Obama said, the U.S. "will continue to develop and deploy effective missile defenses to protect the United States, our deployed forces, and our allies and partners."

The treaty has received the backing of current and former military and national-security officials.

"Ratifying a treaty like START isn't about winning a victory for an administration or a political party," the president said. "It's about the safety and security of the United States of America."

Democrats said a reference in the treaty's preamble on missile-defense systems is non-binding and has no legal authority.

In his letter, Obama said the U.S. disagrees with Russian statements about the threat that a missile defense poses to the strategic balance between the two countries.

"If you change it, it requires this treaty to go back to the Russian government, and then we don't have any treaty," said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Republican critics said Russia is using the treaty to continue its opposition to the deployment of a U.S. missile-defense shield.